5
A: Something like that.
A: I believe they went there quite often.
Q: Open, blooming. . .
Q: Limbo.
A: They came and went. They enjoyed the city. They went to Bloomingdales and the Met. They went to the Cloisters. They went to Astis and banged on their water glasses while the Anvil Chorus was being sung. They went to Sweet Basil and heard Wynton Marsalis. I went with them that night, he played very well, had his brother Branford on tenor. They went to the Museum of Modern Art and bought postcards in the gift shop. They went to Lincoln Center and saw various things, the film festival and all that. They got excited by the Strand and came back with books. They went to the Palladium and saw Lily Tomlin or some?body. They didnt always go t九*九*藏*书*网ogether. Sometimes Veronica and Dore went, sometimes Anne went by herself, and so on. Sometimes they went together to Balduccis and came home with various exotic foods. They cooked together, sometimes. I remember a partic?ularly good Cream of Four Onion soup. They spent a lot of time just walking around looking at things. I think they were happy. Although in limbo.
Q: Sometimes I think I should have been a shrink.
Q: Youd sublet this place.
Q: These women spread out before you like lotus blossoms. . .
Q: Do you hear from them?
Q: You fall face down onto an anthill.
Q: Did they just hang around all day, or what?
A: I dont know, of course. I imagine they were care?ful, thoughtful. Direct.
A: I had the bedroom in the middle九九藏书网. I already had a bed.
A: Why arent you?
A: Not exactly like lotus blossoms.
A: Good Lord no. Maybe worried that it wouldnt. Those women were powerful presences. Took up a lot of space, made a lot of clatter. There were days when I couldnt hear myself think.
A: I went to this bed store and bought three beds. The guy said for an extra fifty he could deliver them by eight oclock. He had his own truck, he said. Got them there right on the button. We stripped off the card?board and plastic and set them up. Two in the back room and one in the little room in the front.
A: Very much like that. How did you know?
Q: The ants are plunging toothpicks into your scro?tum, as it were. As they withdraw the toothpicks, little particles of flesh99lib.net like shreds of ground beef adhere to the toothpicks.
Q: What went on there?
A: By what standard?
Q: Its not medicine.
A: For a year. The owners had left me the bare es?sentials, dishes, towels, that sort of thing. A few pieces of furniture.
Q: All in all, then, it was on the stressful side.
Q: Did they ever go to Fizz?
Q: Where were you?
A: They kept saying, This is so good of you. The other thing they said was, Probably you can sell the beds after we go. Theyd sent all their money to Africa. To fight hunger.
Q: Im not inexperienced.
A: They were in an in-between state, it was hard on them. Id come in and Anne would be sitting on the couch, weeping. The couch wasnt much. Some kind of dull gray fabric. Ask her why shes weeping and she99lib.netd say she didnt know. Veronica hit me once. Hauled off and slugged me in the chest. It was just frustration. Still, I wondered what in her gave her permission to slug me. Then she made a pie, a blueberry pie --
Q: Did the women like it?
Q: How did that make you feel?
Q: So they picked up guys there. . .
A: More like anthills. Splendid, stinging anthills.
Q: My wife was the worlds champion at leaving things lying around. I spent much of my marriage pick?ing up after her. Shed strew things about, as a sower scatters seed over a field. She could not so much as strike a match without leaving the matchbook and a burnt match on some convenient surface. If shed go into the John with a magazine you could be sure that shed leave the magazine in th99lib.nete John, open to the page shed been reading. She was a marvel. Youd call this to her attention and she wouldnt understand what you were talking about. Little balls of Kleenex everywhere, yellow Kleenex, occasional grapefruit hulls -- Were you worried that it would end?
A: Postcards.
A: I imagine them thinking, talking to each other. . .
Q: Generally accepted standards.
Q: You got the beds.
A: I didnt like it.
Q: What did they say to each other?
A: They did, I suppose. They may have been just playing, just exercising. . .
A: It was a meat rack, a heterosexual meat rack. From what theyve told me.
A: We talked a lot. I think of it as a series of conver?sations. A series of ordinary conversations. Simple as pie. They were very good people. I miss them.